MOVE50 – A victorious employee advocacy strategy

Enlisting employees as social media ambassadors can produce fast and stunning results for companies, especially in terms of e-reputation and generating leads. On top of that, the 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer showed that people generally rate employees as more credible than CEOs.

To ring in its 50^th anniversary, Capgemini wanted to unite all 200,000 of its employees and invite them to embody some of the Group’s core values: solidarity, teamwork and fun. Building on the Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects supporting education, the program’s objective was to get Capgemini employees around the world involved in a solidarity challenge that was accessible to everyone. Through this program, called MOVE50, the company planned to generate internal and external communications for the Group’s 50^th anniversary. And our hats are off to the operation, which met all the criteria for a successful employee advocacy strategy, as outlined by marketing journalist Sonia Puiatti.

Banking on the commitment of its employees

Capgemini launched the MOVE50 campaign to celebrate 50 years of movement and commitment, through two solidarity challenges, offered to all 200,000 of the Group’s employees working across 43 countries:

• Get moving over the course of five months to rack up kilometers (on foot, bike, horseback, canoe, etc.) in the Kmforchange app to benefit three charities on three continents;
• Promote the campaign with #CAPGEMINI50 posts on social media to double the donation amounts.

The efforts paid off in spades – at the end of this year the company will donate a whopping €100,000 to three programs supporting education.

Giving employees the choice to participate

In giving its employees the chance to take part in solidarity efforts, the Group chose actions that would earn praise both inside and outside the company, including among its suppliers and the private sector. The program encouraged all types of commitment, so that each employee could take part as they saw fit, depending on their convictions and level of interest. Regardless of their experience, availability or personal history, everyone could feel at ease and free to choose their own way to participate in the actions offered by the company.

Supporting its employees

To roll out the operation, Capgemini relied on the strength of its global CSR (CSR managers) and MARCOM (communication/marketing managers) networks. Each country received a specific communication kit, comprising a teaser, flyers, posters, banners and more, as well as a practical guide for encouraging their employees to get involved:

• Individually: by using the app on their daily commute or during activities in their free time.
• Collectively during existing events: the Group kept an inventory of the annual races attended by its employees in various countries to remind participants to turn on their apps during these events and tag #CAPGEMINI50 posts on social media.

Collectively during special events: each subsidiary and each site had the chance to organize its own events to motivate employees (e.g.: races on company grounds, jogs with a coach during lunch breaks, city walks after work, etc.).

Integrating gamification

The Kmforchange app was fitted out in Capgemini colors to help connect with employees and record the total number of kilometers they covered. To foster a sense of healthy competition and keep each country motivated throughout the entire campaign, Capgemini created two special web pages on the 50 Years website:

• One to display a real-time kilometer count for each country and for each of the three solidarity actions;
• Another to collect all social media posts on a social wall.

In addition, another engaging challenge helped boost healthy competition between countries throughout the campaign:

• Publishing results in real time on the 50^th anniversary website (overall kilometer count, ranking of each country by total kilometers, weighted ranking of each country by total kilometers per employee in the country).
• A social wall displaying all social media posts in real time.

A weekly infographic sent to the Group’s 200,000 employees to share the complete results.

Blending different content types

By using the #CAPGEMINI50, employees could also:

• Publish the results of their latest race using “turnkey” posts offered in the app;
• Send photos taken during the 50^th anniversary snack breaks;
• Highlight the Group’s latest innovations.

To boost the number of social media posts, the Group held two #DAY (hashtag days) and collected more than 50,0000 hashtags posted each day.

A winning strategy

After five months, the operation concluded on October 31, 2017, and it was an absolute success, with more than 410,000km tracked by thousands of employees across the 43 countries where the Group operates. In addition, Group employees tallied up nearly 230,000 #CAPGEMINI50 posts on social media.